Swiss-born Thomas Hirschhorn moved to Paris in 1983 after attending the *Kunstgewerbeschule* in Zurich. He has been living and working in Paris ever since. Starting in the mid-1990s, he has established himself with his often monumental and expansive collages as an internationally renowned artist. Among his most intensively discussed works are his “Presence and Production” projects such as *Gramsci Monument* in New York (2013) or *Robert Walser Sculpture* in Biel, Switzerland (2019), which enables the general public in non-exclusive places such as a housing project in the South Bronx or the square outside Biel train station to collaboratively encounter and experience the ideas of thinkers or authors revered by Hirschhorn. His current work *Community of Fragments* at GL Strand in Copenhagen, a monument constructed out of cardboard and packing tape and stretching over two floors, represents the conceptual world of the philosopher Simone Weil.

Thomas Hirschhorn is the recipient of numerous international prizes, among which are the *Marcel Duchamp Prize* (2000), the *Roland Prize for Art in Public Spaces* (2003), the *Joseph Beuys Prize* (2004), the *Kurt Schwitters Prize* (2011) and the *Prix Meret Oppenheim* (2018). His works were present, among others, at the Venice Biennale (1999 and 2015), the Documenta11 (2002), the 27th São Paolo Biennal (2006), the 9th Shanghai Biennal (2012), in the South London Gallery (2015) and in MoMa PS1 (2019).

Thomas Hirschhorn’s HIAS-Fellowship is provided by the federal and state funds acquired by the Universität Hamburg in the framework of its excellence strategy.